Spotted®: Savannah's squares are family affairs

(left-right) Teri Mobley, Ron Garing, Chuck Eaton, Lynn Eaton, Wilma Garing, and Steve Mobley meet in the same spot on Oglethrope Square every year to watch the St. Patrick's Day Parade together along with other family members.

The tradition of Savannah’s St. Patrick’s Day parade is not confined to between the barricades.

Local families take the celebration to the squares, as well as the streets.

Each of the seven squares along the route is home to dozens of families and groups of friends each March 17. Experiencing the parade from their own semi-private parcel is as much a St. Patrick’s Day custom as wearing green and parking illegally.

The square clans all profess to be Irish, if only for the day, and many are related by friendship, not blood. Some have been gathering in the same space for decades; others aren’t familiar with a time when the city allowed parade watchers to claim a spot on the square the night before.

All speak to their square’s specialness. Beauty, layout and location along the route are oft-mentioned attributes, as is access to a private bathroom. As one square regular said, the “key to a good time at the parade is a key” to a toilet you don’t have to stand in line to use.

These are their St. Patrick’s Day parade stories, square by square.

Calhoun Square: The Moynihans

Jean Soderlind remembers when the Savannah St. Patrick’s Day made Mardi Gras look tame.

“It was wild and a lot less organized,” she said of the parade when she was introduced to it in the 1970s. “Stuff went on you would not want your children to see.”

The route did offer one family-friendly locale: Calhoun Square. The first square in the parade and one featuring plenty of unbroken greenspace, Calhoun was perfect for families with young children. Soderlind’s daughter, Wendy, and her friends would run around the grass while their parents enjoyed the parade.

Wendy grew up and married Michael Moynihan. They renamed the gathering in honor of the Moynihans because “my heritage is a little more Irish,” Michael said.

“We’re all family, so it really doesn’t matter which name we go by,” he said.

The square remains a respite for young families. Jean’s four-year-old great-grandson, Leathan Warner, played at his family members’ feet Saturday morning. Calhoun regulars, including the Moynihans, start their day with the pancake breakfast at Wesley Monumental United Methodist Church, located on the square’s southwest edge.

The Moynihan’s tent is ground zero for the Calhoun crowd. Blessed with about 15 feet of parade-front curb space and enough food to feed most of the square, the Moynihans welcomed Wesley parishioners and other friends throughout the day.

“We tend to collect people as we go,” Jean said. “That’s part of what makes this spot so much fun.”

Lafayette Square: The Konculs

Tony Koncul stood with his elementary school at his back, his parish church to his side and memories all around him.

“We know everybody here, Konculs and otherwise,” Tony said. “This might not be the best spot along the route, but it’s our spot.”

For 50-plus years, the Koncul clan has gathered in the shadow of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and a leprechaun’s toss away from what was once Cathedral School. They ended up on Lafayette Square on parade day by default — Martin and Marguerite Koncul and their growing family spilled out of the cathedral’s 8 a.m. Mass one year in the 1950s, found their car partially blocked in along Harris Street and decided to watch the parade from across the street.

The family has steadily grown in the five decades since. In-laws and more than 35 grandchildren and great-grandchilden live here locally, and relatives from other states regularly visit for St. Patrick’s Day.

The “gathering,” which also attracts countless friends, draws hundreds of attendees.

The Konculs have found strength in their numbers, especially since the city of Savannah closed the nearby streets to parking and began prohibiting the square squatters from setting up the night before.

“We pretty much outnumber everybody else, so we’re able to get the same spot year after year,” said David Koncul, Martin and Marguerite’s grandson.

Oglethorpe Square: The Mobleys

Steve Howard’s death in 2008 left a void in the lives of his friends Steve and Terri Mobley, Ron and Wilma Garing and Chuck and Lynn Eaton.

They all still spend one day a year together: March 17.

Howard’s ashes are spread just steps away from the spot the families share on Oglethorpe, underneath the small wooden sign that frames the shady square. They spread his remains there in 2008 and often bring Howard’s trademark green blazer to their annual party.

“He loved this day and this parade,” Garing said. “The day we spread his ashes is one we’ll never forget. And it was St. Patrick’s Day, of course.”

Howard’s zeal for St. Patrick’s in Savannah brought the 75 or so family and friends together many years ago. The Mobleys, Garings and Eatons all live locally but don’t run in the same social circles.

They long competed for Oglethorpe real estate on March 17 before deciding to turn three small parties into one big one at Howard’s suggestion.

“We still only see each other once a year,” Steve Mobley said. “But we look forward to it all year.”

The food spread features green grits and plenty of bread and cheese, perfect to soak up the libations they enjoy throughout the morning. They have had to beef up the buffet table in recent years, ever since the Wu family closed the Chinese restaurant they long operated across Bull St. from their spot.

“Now that was a breakfast,” Terri Mobley said, “worth getting out of bed in the middle of the night for.”

Johnson Square: The Glovers

Each square along the parade route Saturday featured its own recreational activity, from cornhole to beer pong to ladderball.

Savannah’s largest and first square, Johnson, was home to more of a throwback pursuit: Hula-hooping.

Eleven-year-old Hannah Glover and her friend Margo Rainey broke out the oversized ring to pass the pre-parade hours. A gag wedding gift once given to Hannah’s parents, the hoop had the Johnson Square crowd laughing all day.

“Everyone wanted to try it,” Hannah said. “Some were good at it; others not so much.”

The Glovers and several other Wilmington Island families, including the Raineys and the Sierzants, made Johnson Square their St. Patrick’s Day home six years ago. Bryan Glover and Paul Rainey work in one of the square’s office towers, giving them access to parade day parking and bathrooms.

“At first, it was all about the bathrooms,” Alison Glover said. “But the view is pretty good, too.”

The three families sit on the northern edge of the square facing Savannah’s gold-domed city hall. The sights and sounds of the bagpipes, fife and drum corps and marching bands swinging off Bay Street at City Hall’s foot is as impressive as Hannah Glover’s hula-hooping.

The group’s party headquarters turns heads, too. The men arrive in the pre-dawn hours to claim the spot and set up tents, tables and chairs. Their wives follow later and shoo their husbands toward the kegs-and-eggs breakfast at The Rail Pub so they can decorate. They hang garland, streamers and other festive trimmings.

“It works out well,” Dave Sierzant said. “And it’s not like we could get the wives down here at 5 a.m. They’re too smart to give up sleep.”

Wright Square: The Kamerons

The Kamerons started St. Patrick’s Day 2012 the same way they have every March 17 in recent years, with a toast to the late family matriarch Mary and a swig of her “jungle juice.”

Only the location has changed.

The Kamerons moved to Wright Square from Chippewa in 2006. The family had spent three decades partying in the shadow of General Oglethorpe’s statue. Swelling crowds and the city’s placement of barricades on Chippewa prompted the Kamerons’ move north one square.

Wright is much more intimate. Home to two monuments, one in honor of Savannah co-founder William Washington Gordon and the other to Creek Indian leader Tomochichi, the square lacks the open space — and thereby the popularity — of others along the route.

Wright’s low profile made it the easy relocation choice for the 60-plus member Kameron clan. The female family members are easy to spot by their green carnation corsages, pinned to their blouses each March 17 by the family patriarch, 87-year-old John Kameron. The tradition dates back to Kathleen and her seven siblings’ childhoods

“It was a big deal when we were little and it is still a big deal today,” Kathleen said.

As the oldest Kameron child, Kathleen also wears another special tribute to her mother: A blue sash created in memory of Mary. She died in 1999.

The day is both joyous and sad for the Kamerons. Tom Walters, Kathleen’s fiance, said St. Patrick’s Day is as special as Christmas to the family — maybe more so.

“Friends send them cards at St. Patrick’s Day instead of Christmas,” Walters said. “They have a lot of fond memories here.”

Chippewa Square: The Hagans

Chippewa Square is perfect for lazy parade-goers.

The square is the last one on the official parade route (the finish line is at the northern edge of Madison Square, the next square south of Chippewa), making it a favorite with the sleep-in crowd Plus, the St. Patrick’s Day mayor of the square, Jason Hagan, handles all the logistics for his 150-plus late-rising constituents.

Hagan claims a large chunk of the Chippewa greenspace for his and about 20 other families every St. Patrick’s Day morning. The families drop off their coolers, chairs, tables and tents to the Coastal Insulation and Interiors warehouse prior to St. Patrick’s Day and Hagan and several of his employees put them on a company truck, drive them to the square early on St. Patrick’s morning and set up for the event.

Hagan’s crew handles the tear down, too.

“We just show up and the stuff is all here,” said Robyn Iannone, who is part of Hagan’s extended family, at least on St. Patrick’s Day. “At the end of the day we’ll leave and pick it all up at his warehouse.”

Hagan and two other families, the Egans and the Hales, would make good urban planners. They established Hagan-ville’s boundaries Saturday before the police allowed parade-watchers into the square by negotiating with their neighbors. They had caution tape up around their large plot on the south end of the square about five seconds after the clock struck 6 a.m.

The crew is relatively new. Jason is a native Savannahian but never claimed a piece of square real estate prior to the 2004 parade. He always watched the parade from a friend’s porch along the route as a child and young man.

But the scenes in the squares always beckoned, and he eventually answered.

“You see so many groups with great setups in the squares,” Hagan said, “and we just thought it would be cool to have our own place to invite friends and family.”

Madison Square: The Ryans

Sergeant Jasper’s home square is not officially on the parade route.

Technically, the 3-mile march ends just short of the Bull Street greenspace. For parade participants, the square at the end of the line is a good place to land.

“I can’t tell you what a relief it is to go past the reviewing stand and right into this square,” said Tony Ryan, the 2006 parade grand marshal. “As a past marshal, I get to ride in a car now. But I remember the days when come noon on St. Patrick’s Day you just wanted a place to sit down.”

Madison became the marchers’ unofficial post-parade gathering spot in the late-1980s. Savannah’s Irish families had grown past the point where there were enough tickets for the various afternoon Irish parties.

So Tony and his wife Shirley along with the Richards family decided in 1988 or 1989 — they’re not sure which — to host their own party. They loaded their cars with coolers stocked with sandwiches, sodas and beers, parked them near Madison around 7:30 a.m. St. Patrick’s Day morning and walked to morning mass. From church, they’d head to the staging area and eventually land back in Madison.

“We could refresh and enjoy the parade in a safe and beautiful setting,” Ryan said. “The kids always needed lunch and they wanted to run around after marching with dad for two hours. It was a great ending to our parade.”

The gathering soon attracted more of the parade families. The route doesn’t wrap around Madison, so the square was largely empty of spectators. Unlike elsewhere, there was no reason to stake a claim and guard a spot on Madison — something families that march in the parade didn’t want to bother with.

Tony’s brother Mike and his wife and kids, as well as the Corishes and the Burkes soon joined the fun, as did families like the Russos, Winterses, Hogans, Flemings, McNamaras, Cannons and Herbs.

Spectators have discovered Madison Square in recent years. Their presence has pushed the parade families back toward the Jasper statue as the square’s center.

They don’t mind, however, so long as Shirley is there to welcome them at parade’s end with a drink and a sandwich.

“They look great when they get here — it must be the adrenaline or something,” Shirley Ryan said. “But they are hungry and they are thirsty.”